Diabel (1972)
Genre: Drama / Horror
Duration: 119 minuten
Alternative title: The Devil
Country:
Poland
Directed by: Andrzej Zulawski
Stars: Małgorzata Braunek, Iga Mayr and Monika Niemczyk
IMDb score:
7,0 (3.702)
Releasedate: 1 March 1988
This movie is not available on US streaming services.
Diabel plot
"Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death."
1795: The Prussians invade Poland. A young nobleman, Jakub, is arrested for collaboration. A mysterious stranger frees him, but wants a list of names of fellow collaborators in exchange for his release. He decides to follow his mysterious liberator on a journey across the country. All around him he sees moral decay and destruction of human values. In the end, he himself also falls into a series of unexplained, gruesome murders.
Actors and actresses
Stranger / The Devil
Jakub
Fiancée
Jakub's Mother
Herz
Ezechiel
The Count / Groom
The Nun
Turkish Woman
The Dwarf
Reviews & comments
baspls
-
- 4118 messages
- 1673 votes
Total madness.
In 1795, the Prussians invade Poland. The country is in total chaos. A figure dressed in black frees Jakub from his cell so that Jakub can lead him to the leaders of the resistance. At home, Jakub finds nothing but misery, and eventually he goes just as mad as the people around him and starts killing.
When Andrzej Zulawski released the film in 1972, it was banned by the Communist Party. Consequently, he fled to France and later to West Germany, where he was able to work freely.
I previously saw Possession by Zulawski, and now that I have seen this film as well, I can confirm that the man is simply obsessed with madness, chaos, insanity, and hysteria. In many ways, Zulawski is the opposite of that other great Eastern European filmmaker, Andrei Tarkovsky, who makes very quiet, contemplative films. The only difference between Possession and Diabel is that Possession is brilliantly filmed and features superb performances from Sam Neill and Isabelle Adjani, whereas Diabel actually has nothing to offer in that regard. Furthermore, Adjani is actually the only one who is truly completely off the rails; otherwise, that film is 'reasonably normal'. In Diabel, everyone acts as if they have taken various types of drugs or just walked out of a madhouse.
By the end, I didn't feel like the film really made a point. Except for the ending, I didn't find it memorable at all, and I really can't stand that acting style in Zulawski's films anymore. All that fiddling between actors, that frantic talking, and the women who are all totally hysterical.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Woland
-
- 4877 messages
- 3910 votes
In Diabel, we follow the wanderings of Jakub, who is liberated after a war in Poland about three centuries ago, and his mysterious liberator. The title "wandering" might make it sound like a somewhat standard historical road movie, but it is anything but. It is a nightmarish trek in which the tone is set right from the start, in a sort of madhouse where screaming people run at each other. Fortunately, the film calms down a bit afterward, but that is relative. Mania and madness surface regularly, as do random encounters that escalate into brutal violence; the Poland Jakub knows lies in ruins, with, for example, his father deceased and his fiancée having slept with multiple relatives, and he also simply encounters bizarre people and situations—a circus, a traveling theater, a group of prostitutes. This is frequently further emphasized by camera shots filming from unusual angles and sometimes making disorienting, circling movements. Very beautifully done, but it only makes things more alienating.
All this misery turns out to become all a bit too much for Jakub in the rest of the film, and we see him descend into murder, rape, and brutal violence. There is not much of a plot to be found apart from this journey through a nightmarish Poland and the accompanying mental deterioration of Jakub, and the two hours might be a bit on the long side – but I still found it worthwhile. The visuals are particularly beautiful; although there was little plot, more than enough happened to keep me from getting bored, and I wasn't bothered nearly as much by the mania and screaming that regularly rears its head as baspls above. Whom I can definitely advise Alucarda and Marat/Sade against 
Translated from Dutch · View original
Filmkriebel
-
- 10293 messages
- 4819 votes
Political allegory disguised as a horror film. In terms of style, Diabel can certainly be called a Zulawski pur sang in that regard, finding its roots in the reactionary movements of 1968. But I don't like it: it is affected, theatrical, full of actors moving spastically and cold imagery... I did not find this film easy to watch. The devil, played by Pszoniak, symbolizes the communist regime in Poland, and that had not escaped the government at the time, no matter how hard Zulawski tried to conceal it under a depressing historical drama, causing the film not to be shown in Poland for a long time and forcing Zulawski to move it to France. Anyway, I find the story surrounding the film more interesting than the film itself.
As for the horror: much ado about nothing. My tip: read something about this film first and then watch it. Because without understanding the message, Diabel is little more than an incoherent succession of bizarre scenes...
Translated from Dutch · View original
Corporate & Media
Realtimes Network
Innovatieweg 20C
7007 CD, Doetinchem, Netherlands
+31(315)-764002
